Saturday, June 25, 2016

Lady Gaga is among the 180 artists who have joined a petition calling for a digital copyright reform. Gaga, Taylor Swift, Sir Paul McCartney, Carole King, U2 and dozens of other big names signed an open letter to Congress asking lawmakers to rewrite the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that is used by websites such as YouTube "to grow and generate huge profits while songwriters' and artists' earnings continue to diminish."
The petition is aimed at the law's loophole that safeguards services like YouTube against copyright infringement litigation so long as they respond to takedown notices from rightsholders and remove the material in question. Since YouTube is such a massive platform, many uploads go unnoticed and it's extremely difficult for owners to police their content, the petition claims.
"The existing laws threaten the continued viability of songwriters and recording artists to survive from the creation of music. Aspiring creators shouldn't have to decide between making music and making a living," the open letter reads.